Edmonton Public Schools is on track to accumulate a $1-billion backlog of school repairs within a decade.

While the public school division builds 15 new schools — mostly in the suburbs — nearly two-thirds of its buildings will be at least 50 years old next year, executive director of infrastructure Lorne Parker said. Few of the older schools have had substantial upgrades.

With public schools only 70-per-cent full, difficult decisions are looming about what to do with dozens of aging schools in the city’s core, Parker said.

All schools are safe, Parker said, but they may not be comfortable. Buildings with aging boilers struggle to control room temperatures. Some lighting is too dull, windows are aging, and worn-out blinds hang untouched since the 1970s. 126 of the division’s 202 schools need their mechanical and electrical systems replaced.

How did the division get into this untenable situation?

Parker said all building and maintenance funds come from the provincial government. This year, the province gave Edmonton public $15 million to tackle a $662-million to-do list. To make up a shortfall, $29 million that should have paid for teachers and school programs was redirected to school maintenance budgets.

The school environment influences how well kids learn, which is why Edmonton public has a plan to put all 92,000 students into new or modernized schools by 2024.

Instead of closing schools, or waiting for an increase in provincial money, the school division is hoping to negotiate a trade. Parents may be more amendable to moving their child if a few underused schools are consolidated into one new, or significantly modernized building, Parker said.

“People are starting to realize that we can’t continue to operate way more space than we need,” Parker said.

More neighbourhoods could experience the kind of arrangement made in the Lawton area, where the new Ivor Dent K-9 school is set to replace Rundle, R.J. Scott, and Lawton schools in fall 2017.

A similar plan is in store for Highlands. The school division has asked the government for money to build a new school to replace Montrose, Mount Royal, and Highlands junior high. Each of those schools has fewer than 250 students enrolled.

For the first time ever, the school division is paying a consulting firm $1.5 million to thoroughly review the condition of every one of its schools. Meanwhile, division staff are studying all programs and services to ask if they’re in the best places, Parker said.

Coming soon will be consultations with each neighbourhood to get their input, too.

“It’s not an easy conversation, but we’re trying to have the community work with us as opposed to just going out and telling them, ‘This is what’s going to happen,’ ” Parker said.

Parent Jenn Roggeveen’s two sons attend historic Garneau elementary school, which was built in 1923 at the

Former Edmonton Public School Board chairman Dave Colburn poses in front of Garneau school in 2011.Brian Gavriloff /
Edmonton Journal

intersection of 109 Street and 87 Avenue. She found it “comforting” when the school division recently replaced the school’s boiler, because she figured they wouldn’t invest in a school administrators intended to close.

Edmonton’s older schools are not getting the level of attention they need to stay in good shape, she said. Although she has no concerns about Garneau’s safety, the school isn’t wheelchair accessible, and the lack of elevator causes grief for staff moving furniture up and down the building’s three storeys.

Parents need to be realistic and ready to compromise to improve the overall condition of city schools, she said.

“Yeah, I love my school, but can I really expect them to drop their money into the school if it doesn’t make sense overall?”

In the King Edward neighbourhood, parent council member Suzanne Welsh said her son’s school desperately needs more space. The Academy at King Edward, a specialized school for children with learning disabilities, teaches children from Grades 2 to 9. The 1914 building is too full to accommodate high school students, and they’re sent to Victoria school come Grade 1o. She’s concerned demand on the space will only increase as more students are diagnosed with learning disabilities.

Catherine Nissen, assistant superintendent, facility services for Edmonton Catholic Schools, would like to see more schools get funding for modernizations.John Lucas /
Edmonton Journal

It would cost $125 million to bring Edmonton Catholic School Board’s schools up to today’s building standards, assistant superintendent of facility services Catherine Nissen said.

The less maintenance the division puts into buildings, the less likely they are to be salvageable in the long run, she said.

Instead of more maintenance funding, Nissen wants to see the provincial government sink more money into major school modernizations that provide better bang for their buck.

A 2009 Alberta School Boards Association report called the province’s school infrastructure funding approach “broken.” The report said repair funding is “erratic,” and recommended school boards get more power to borrow money and decide which projects are the priority.

Alberta Infrastructure has already committed $3.8 billion to 200 ongoing school construction and renovation projects across the province.

The ministry says its 2014-15 provincewide tally of deferred maintenance work is $926 million, which is less than school division estimates.

In an emailed statement, Education Minister Dave Eggen said students deserve “proper and maintained” schools.

“We also increased funding for school infrastructure and maintenance renewal (IMR) by 50 per cent in Budget 2015,” the statement said. “Details on what will be available for schools in Budget 2016 will be forthcoming in the weeks ahead.”

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